Fascinating pictures show Delta's 10 decades

Daily Mail ^ | 5/14/2019 | TED THORNHILL

[WhoisAlanGreenspan?]

Delta Air Lines flies to 370 destinations on six continents using a range of hi-tech Airbus and Boeing aircraft
But it started life as a crop-dusting outfit in 1924. It expanded to passenger transportation with fiver-seaters The pictures here reveal how air travel with Delta took huge leaps forward from 1936 onwards
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines is worth $37billion (£28billion) and flies to 370 destinations on six continents with state-of-the-art aircraft.

Truly, it’s a titan of aviation.

But it started life as a crop-dusting outfit in 1924. And when it expanded to passenger transportation it used planes that could only hit 90mph, with the wind behind them. Delta has been on quite a journey, then – and these fascinating pictures illustrate the carrier’s dramatic transformation over the decades.

They show some of its earliest passenger planes, a restored 1931 model with five passenger seats, a 1940 Douglas DC-3, which had 21 seats and was capable of 170mph, and a 1946 DC-4, which had 44 seats and a brisk-for-the-time top speed of 215mph.

[WhoisAlanGreenspan?]

This is a nice little aviation pictorial history. Some effort has been made that these examples do not have copyright stamps, just sayin.

[Veto!]

Airline history fascinates me. I have a beautiful book on the history of PanAm, all in color.

[dfwgator]

Don’t
Ever
Leave
The
Airport

[joethedrummer]

Don’t
Expect
Luggage
To
Arrive

[WhoisAlanGreenspan?]

Since they bought out Northwest Airlines, DTW or Detroit Metro airport has been one of their regional hubs. I've lived here about 6.5 miles NNE of prime take off and landing route for the past 30+ years.

As I sit on my back porch all the planes flying over have the word Delta written on the underbelly. I've always wondered what they were trying to say. Thanks!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The Airport Hilton at St. Louis is a shrine to TWA.
Every room, every hallway, restaurant and bar features happy folks getting on or getting off TWA airplanes...

[1Old Pro]

Airline history fascinates me. I have a beautiful book on the history of PanAm, all in color.

The world headquarters bldg. is still in Key West.

[dfwgator]

Branniff is still my all-time favorite airline.

[NorthMountain]

The Lockheed Constellation was one of the (maybe even THE) prettiest airliner ever built. It looks almost organic, like a dolphin.

[Responsibility2nd]

That second picture.

Barbara Bush sitting next to Lyndon Johnson.

Cool.

[rlmorel]

Interesting color schemes, beautiful Stewardesses (er...flight attendants”...bah)

[rlmorel]

I can’t tell...is that for real? Kind of looks like LBJ from the side...

[Responsibility2nd]

Sure its real.

And on the other side of the isle we have Tony Curtis. Sitting next to Marilyn Monroe.

[DoodleDawg]

I can’t tell...is that for real? Kind of looks like LBJ from the side...

His ears are too small for it to be LBJ.

[rlmorel]

LOL...I forgot about Mr. Original JugHandles!

[rlmorel]

LOL, okay, now you are just being a jerk!

[Bratch]

[Responsibility2nd]

Yep. And its not even lunch time.

[M Kehoe]

Hi.

Do you know who purchased Piedmont Airlines?

Thanks.

5.56mm

[rlmorel]

Heh, fish gotta swim, bird’s gotta eat!